Before Mrs. Pierce had contracted pneumonia, she had suffered for many years from stomach pains which is a classic symptom of mold exposure. My nine year old son who got really sick after being exposed to mold also has experienced severe stomach pain for months at a time, and I have also seen many people online complain of the same symptoms.

If you research mold and stomach pain and lung diseases online, you will find many reputable websites and testimonials that show these are the main symptoms of mold exposure and fungal disease.

This mold Aspergillus causes a group of diseases called Aspergillosis. One of these diseases in known as Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis which is a serious infection with pneumonia. It can spread to other parts of the body. This infection occurs most often in people with a weakened immune system.

These molds can be ingested, absorbed through the skin and inhaled, which can cause the mold to enter the bloodstream and spread all throughout the body. The typical health effects occur in the digestive system (stomach and intestine). Molds can irritate the digestive system causing diarrhea, dehydration, nausea or stomach cramps.(2)

The Bristol Post reports:

In March, Mrs. Pierce again suffered abdominal pain and was taken back to the hospital where she called her partner Gordon Donald to tell him she was going into theatre as something had ‘burst inside her.’

Surgery revealed she had suffered two perforations to her small bowel which medics believe may have happened a few days earlier.

However the contents of her bowel had seeped into her body meaning Mrs. Pierce underwent three further surgical procedures to remove the infected material.

On March 30, Mrs. Pierce was taken back into theatre to look again at her bowel and reset her colostomy bag

Sadly, following the procedure, she suffered a cardiac arrest and died.

A post mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr. Patrick Gallagher showed evidence that Mrs. Pierce had suffered a long standing inflammation of the bowel, suggesting she had Crohn’s disease which may have caused the perforation.

Also during his examination he found that Mrs. Pierce also had a fungal lung infection known as Aspergillus which caused severe pneumonia in both lungs.

Aspergillus can live in a healthy person’s lungs un-noticed. The inquest heard however it can take hold when a person becomes seriously unwell.

Mr. Gallagher gave the primary cause of death as bilateral bronchial pneumonia.

He added: “In this particular case I cannot fully explain why it took hold of her lungs and caused a severe and fatal case of pneumonia.”

“Such a severe pneumonia in a comparatively young person is unusual.”

“The fungus was able to grow and take hold abnormally under the stress of recent events.”